“Mozilla prides itself on being held to a different standard and, this past week, we didn’t live up to it,” Executive Chairwoman Mitchell Baker wrote in the post. “We know why people are hurt and angry, and they are right: it’s because we haven’t stayed true to ourselves.”

The company said it is discussing its next step for leadership and “will have more information next week.”

No matter your views on same sex marriage, the resignation can't be much of a surprise. It's not a question of politics, but rather executive effectiveness. As CEO Eich would need considerable buy-in to lead Mozilla through a tricky period where it's trying to shift its focus to mobile, and with an employee petition seeking his ouster reaching more than 60,000 signatures, it's not clear that he would have this. Also, by resigning now, Eich hopefully cuts off the distracting and damaging stories about the story.

"People think we were upset about his past vote. Instead we were more upset with his current and continued unwillingness to discuss the issue with empathy," Rarebit co-founder Hampton Caitlin wrote. "Seriously, we assumed that he would reconsider his thoughts on the impact of the law (not his personal beliefs), issue an apology, and then he’d go on to be a great CEO. The fact it ever went this far is really disturbing to us."

OkCupid, which took the unusual step to add a message to its site asking users who visit with the Firefox browser to boycott Mozilla, has removed that message. The company wouldn't publically comment about the removal, but said it would probably have a formal statement about the whole episode up in the next few days.